


A Minor Mystery

by cafflow



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Canon Universe, Fluff, M/M, Misunderstandings, Sharing Clothes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:08:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26698807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cafflow/pseuds/cafflow
Summary: Mingyu schemes to find out why Jeonghan hasn’t been stealing any of his clothes lately, which is a grave insult even if Minghao doesn’t think so.
Relationships: Kim Mingyu/Yoon Jeonghan
Comments: 14
Kudos: 87





	A Minor Mystery

‘I think he’s wearing one of Seokmin’s shirts again,’ Mingyu said, frowning at his phone.

Minghao was bent over a canvas on the floor and preoccupied with adding streaks of muted pink to it, but he made a questioning noise that told Mingyu he was listening. He had a knack for dividing his attention in a way that Mingyu both envied and appreciated, since it meant Mingyu could hang out with him while he painted without feeling too much like a nuisance.

‘I knew it looked familiar.’ Mingyu increased the brightness of his screen and stared hard at it. ‘Seokmin was wearing it last week during a recording session. I remember because I liked the constellation design on the back.’

‘I still have no idea what you’re talking about,’ Minghao said patiently.

‘Jeonghan-hyung!’ Mingyu exclaimed, holding his phone out so Minghao could see Jeonghan and Seokmin, live broadcasting from two floors down in Seokmin’s room and inexplicably choosing to entertain their audience with a round of Jenga. ‘That’s not his shirt.’

Minghao paused mid-brushstroke to peer at the screen. ‘If you say so. But I’m sure Seokmin doesn’t mind; Jeonghan-hyung’s always borrowing clothes from him.’

‘That’s the problem!’ Mingyu blurted out, before he could stop to think about how it would sound out loud. ‘Why is he always borrowing from Seokmin lately?’

There was a moment of confused silence as Mingyu tried to figure out how he could explain himself and still leave the conversation with a modicum of dignity, and Minghao visibly sorted through several different conclusions about Mingyu’s outburst. Mingyu felt a flutter of trepidation when Minghao laid his brush down to give Mingyu his full attention, his expression disbelieving.

‘Tell me if I’m wrong,’ Minghao began, which was unlikely enough that Mingyu pre-emptively curled in on himself and hid his face behind one of Minghao’s pillows, ‘but are you actually jealous that Seokmin gets his clothes stolen every other week by Jeonghan-hyung?’

‘No,’ Mingyu said, muffled in the pillow.

‘Then why are you hiding?’

‘Because I’m lying!’ Mingyu sat up and flung the pillow aside, then scrambled to retrieve it when it tumbled onto the floor. ‘I have a great sense of fashion, Minghao! Why doesn’t he take _my_ clothes anymore? He used to do it all the time.’

‘He doesn’t usually borrow from most of us, so I’m not sure it’s the insult you’re making it out to be.’

‘It feels like one to me,’ Mingyu muttered, as the Jeonghan on his phone screen steadied the Jenga tower with one hand and quickly slid a block out while Seokmin wasn’t looking. It was so typical of him to cheat even when there were no stakes involved; Mingyu shouldn’t have found it as amusing as he did. When he looked up, still smiling helplessly, Minghao was watching him.

‘I wonder why that is,’ Minghao said mildly, and went back to his painting.

‘There has to be a reason he’s stopped borrowing from me. I’m going to find out what it is.’

‘How will you do that?’

‘I’ll come up with a good plan,’ Mingyu said, with all the grimness and determination of a protagonist in a zombie movie facing a final horde standing in the way of his escape. ‘Don’t worry.’

Minghao did not seem reassured.

;-;

Mingyu didn’t end up with a plan so much as a loose collection of schemes designed to confirm whether Jeonghan’s lack of interest in his clothes was actually due to lack of interest, or if there were other factors involved. It wasn’t entirely out of the realm of possibility that Seokmin suddenly had a wardrobe more to Jeonghan’s taste than Mingyu’s, but it could also simply be a matter of—

‘Convenience,’ Mingyu whispered to Minghao as they took a break during choreography practice, tucking themselves into a corner of the room with their water bottles. ‘What if Jeonghan’s just lazy and goes for clothes he has easiest access to?’

Minghao was unimpressed by the theory. ‘Then why doesn’t he borrow any of mine? I’m next door to him. He has to go down two floors for Seokmin’s clothes.’

‘Yes, but he spends a lot of time in Seokmin’s room so it’s convenient in that sense.’

‘I feel like I could poke a lot of holes in this idea, but I won’t because you seem very determined to go ahead with whatever you’ve planned.’

Mingyu had overturned a tote bag full of clothing before Minghao even finished speaking. He spread everything out, arranging the three shirts, an oversized hoodie, and a light cardigan in a display as aesthetically pleasing as he could manage in the corner of a practice room smelling faintly of sweat. Then he caught Jeonghan’s eye and gazed meaningfully at him until he came over.

‘You look like a market stall owner who wants to cut my organs out,’ Jeonghan said by way of greeting.

‘I don’t want your organs,’ Mingyu said. ‘Why would anyone want your organs?’

‘Why not? What’s wrong with them?’ Jeonghan retorted.

‘Nothing! I—’ Mingyu let out a forceful, exasperated breath and tried to redirect the conversation away from the complete inanity it was clearly headed towards. ‘Nothing’s wrong with them. They’re great. Can you please just look at my clothes?’

Jeonghan gave him an odd look, but obliged. ‘Did you go on a shopping spree recently?’

‘No, but they _are_ all pretty new. What do you think? Would you want to wear any of them?’

Minghao was perfectly still next to him, but Mingyu could practically feel him radiating with embarrassment. It was true that there was nothing subtle about this approach, but if it got results, what did it matter? Jeonghan would express interest in borrowing something or he wouldn’t, and Mingyu could work from there.

Jeonghan shrugged. ‘If you’re trying to sell them, I don’t need any more clothes right now.’

That was not one of the outcomes Mingyu had anticipated.

‘Sell them?’ he repeated in complete bewilderment. ‘Why would you think that?’

‘You’re not? Why are they all set out like that, then? And why did you bring so many clothes to a choreography practice?’

‘He has a point,’ Minghao said.

Mingyu made a last-ditch effort to salvage his scheme. ‘Don’t you feel any sort of... impulse, looking at these clothes? No allure from them?’

Jeonghan’s response was to crouch down and lean over to place a palm on Mingyu’s forehead, his eyebrows pulling together in confused concern. This close, Mingyu caught the scent of soap still clinging stubbornly to him after an hour of intense dancing and noticed the hair over his ears was drying into messy tufts. His shirt did not belong to Seokmin; Mingyu had already checked.

‘Have you been drinking enough water?’ Jeonghan asked, moving his hand to cup Mingyu’s cheek. ‘You’re acting very strangely.’

Mingyu found himself too stuck on the gentle touch to defend himself, which was ridiculous because Jeonghan doled out casual affection like he had daily targets to reach. There was no reason for Mingyu to get tongue-tied, no reason for Minghao to raise an eyebrow knowingly at him over Jeonghan’s shoulder.

‘I think you should put your clothes away and take a rest,’ Jeonghan said. ‘You can sell them another day.’

Despite Mingyu’s protests that there was nothing wrong with him and he had no intention of selling his clothes, Jeonghan made him pack everything up and lie down with the stuffed tote bag as a makeshift pillow. He was forced to accept his first scheme was a failure, but Jeonghan stayed to keep an eye on him, playing with his hair as they talked, and it didn’t really seem to matter much after that.

;-;

If convenience wasn’t a factor— and after Minghao sat him down to poke holes in the theory, he decided it probably wasn’t— then could it be a wrongly perceived difference in quality?

‘In other words,’ Minghao said slowly, tidying away his breakfast dishes, ‘Jeonghan-hyung prefers Seokmin’s style over yours?’

It was Mingyu’s turn to sit him down for a lecture, though he sweetened it by offering Minghao the remainder of the coffee he’d just brought back to the dorms. It was a much more generous act than it might have seemed; with the group gearing up for a comeback, Mingyu was starting to run almost entirely on caffeine and sheer force of will.

‘No, that’s not it at all. Listen, Jeonghan-hyung is in Seokmin’s room a lot, right? That means he gets exposed to Seokmin’s entire wardrobe on a regular basis and sees everything: the good, the bad, the boring. However! He usually only sees a part of my wardrobe when I wear it, and lately I’ve been sticking to basic pieces which— while timeless— aren’t especially exciting. Therefore, his perception of our current fashion styles is skewed in Seokmin’s favour.’

Minghao took a long sip of coffee, started to speak, then stopped to drink some more. ‘If that’s the case, how are you going to change it? Parade around in your best outfits until it skews the other way?’

‘I won’t parade or make a big deal out of it. I’ll just show him what he’s missing.’

‘I see. Mingyu, are you aware that you’re beginning to sound a lot like a jilted lover?’

Mingyu hadn’t, and although it wasn’t even remotely true, he felt himself blushing like it was. He was aware he was starting to border on obsessive over what was objectively a total non-issue, but he couldn’t help it. Now that it was there, the question of why Jeonghan had stopped wearing his clothes kept rattling around in his head, waiting for an answer.

‘Do you have time to help me pick out some outfits?’ he asked, hoping Minghao wouldn’t see his request for the deflection that it was.

Whether he did or not, Minghao once again proved himself a great best friend and wonderful person in general by mercifully letting the topic drop and following Mingyu to his room, where there was a shortlist of options waiting to be culled further. In the middle of a discussion on the merits of Mingyu’s black denim jacket— Minghao thought it would successfully attract Jeonghan, Mingyu thought that made Jeonghan sound like a bee— Soonyoung appeared.

‘What’s going on?’ he asked, joining them in staring at the jacket laid out on the bed. ‘Are you going to sell more of your clothes, Mingyu?’

Minghao started laughing.

‘I’m not selling any clothes!’ Mingyu said, annoyed. ‘Is Jeonghan-hyung telling everyone I am?’

‘Yeah. Well, me and Seokmin.’

‘Tell him he’s wrong!’

Soonyoung grinned. He apparently didn’t feel the need to know any more than that, choosing instead to listen to Mingyu and Minghao argue about whether jackets looked better buttoned or left open, then begin poking through a pile of clothes they’d already rejected.

‘Try this one,’ Minghao said suddenly, hooking a hanger over Mingyu’s wrist. He had picked out an emerald green sweater, an impulse buy from last year which Mingyu had yet to wear. It was very soft and extremely expensive, the kind of expensive that needed a special occasion to show it off.

‘It might be a little too much,’ Mingyu said uncertainly, but he stripped his shirt off to try it on.

He was right. The sweater was luxuriously soft against his skin and every bit as flattering as he remembered, but Jeonghan was almost certainly guaranteed to find it odd if he started showing up to meetings and practices looking so dressed up. He smoothed down the front and sighed, a little wistfully. If only Jeonghan could see him now.

‘Oh, hyung!’ Soonyoung called out, beckoning to someone outside. He had moved to the mirror by the door, clutching a handful of graphic tees. ‘I’m in here with Mingyu and Minghao. Mingyu’s trying on a lot of clothes for some reason.’

Mingyu wondered if Jeonghan ever spent any time on his own floor, or if he only used his room as a place to sleep and store his belongings. He wandered in— Mingyu reflexively scrutinised his outfit, but couldn’t immediately confirm whether it all belonged to him or not— and looked over them all, standing there in the middle of a veritable explosion of clothing. Mingyu couldn’t help shifting nervously like he’d been caught doing something wrong.

‘This is nice,’ Jeonghan said, reaching out to touch Mingyu’s sweater. The tips of his fingers slid underneath the hem as he rubbed his thumb appraisingly over the fabric, and he laughed when Mingyu tensed at the brush of cold fingers on his stomach. ‘You look good, Mingyu. Are you going somewhere special?’

‘No? I mean, no, I just thought it was time I tried to clear out some old clothes.’

Jeonghan nodded distractedly. His fingers had begun trailing a path over Mingyu’s waist, which prickled with new-found sensitivity. There was a warmth in his eyes that drew Mingyu in and kept him firmly trapped in Jeonghan’s orbit. If anything, Mingyu thought, it made more sense to say he was the hapless bee to Jeonghan’s vibrant flower.

‘Well, don’t get rid of this one, okay?’ Jeonghan said with a little half-smile that made Mingyu want to do something reckless. ‘I like it on you.’

Mingyu didn’t get the chance to reply before Soonyoung interrupted with a request for Jeonghan’s help, which might have been for the best since Mingyu had genuinely forgotten there was anyone else in the room. Jeonghan joined Soonyoung in front of the mirror and Mingyu glanced at Minghao, who seemed torn between being amused and scandalised.

‘Can I borrow these shirts, Mingyu?’ Soonyoung asked, holding up one on each side of his body, like Mingyu needed to see how they looked on him before giving permission. ‘Or maybe just one, but I can’t decide which is better and Jeonghan-hyung’s not helping.’

‘Mingyu is much more fashionable than I am,’ Jeonghan said lightly. ‘Let him choose.’

The surge of triumph he felt at that— Jeonghan did appreciate his sense of style after all!— gave way to a quiet satisfaction that fuelled him for the rest of the day.

;-;

Their schedules soon became too full for Mingyu to spare on new schemes. He still dutifully wore the outfits he and Minghao had picked out, but it seemed to change only one thing about the entire situation: Jeonghan, for some unknown reason, took to regularly complimenting everything Mingyu wore.

Mingyu was so pleased by the constant stream of flattery that it didn’t strike him as strange until one evening when he and some of the members were having dinner at the dorms, and Jeonghan made a point of telling him how good he looked in a pair of tracksuit pants and an old shirt that was rapidly fraying at the sleeves.

‘Seriously?’ Joshua asked incredulously. ‘I give that shirt a month before it’s more suited as a cleaning rag.’

Jeonghan scowled at him, but it wasn’t as effective as it might have been if he hadn’t been holding a chicken drumstick in one hand. ‘Mingyu obviously likes it.’

‘He can like it and still be aware it’s destined for the trash.’

‘I’m aware,’ Mingyu said hastily before dinner could dissolve into an argument about his shirt. ‘I only wear it at home because it’s comfortable to sleep in.’

‘You don’t have to explain yourself,’ Jeonghan said, his expression turning stubborn. ‘If you like it, you should wear it whenever you want.’

Seungcheol glanced up from his plate with his eyebrows raised high. ‘That’s clearly not true in our line of work. What’s going on, Jeonghan? Do you have some kind of stylistically daring outfit that someone told you not to wear?’

‘Yes, I’m lashing out over my new traffic light themed suit.’ Jeonghan rolled his eyes and pointed sternly at Seungcheol with his chicken. ‘This is not about me. I just want Mingyu to feel confident in everything he wears.’

Mingyu was puzzled. ‘Why?’

‘What have I missed? Is someone being mean about Mingyu’s fashion sense?’ Seungcheol turned to Mingyu with his arms outstretched. ‘Do you need a hug, Mingyu? Come here; hyung will make it better.’

He and Joshua pinned Mingyu between them in a group hug, ignoring his laughing pleas for release. When they let him go, his shirt was smeared with sauce in four different places and Seungcheol had knocked over Joshua’s bottle of water. The topic of Jeonghan’s weird mood was forgotten in the resulting clean up, but after dinner, Mingyu caught Jeonghan as he was preparing to return to his floor.

Jeonghan smiled at him. ‘You want to know what I meant earlier, about making sure you feel confident.’

Mingyu wasn’t surprised that Jeonghan had expected the question. He nodded and watched Jeonghan pause, as if taking a second to select his words carefully.

‘Lately, it’s seemed like you’ve been very concerned about what you wear.’ Jeonghan looked searchingly at him. ‘More than usual, I mean.’

‘Oh,’ Mingyu said, because he had no idea what else to say. It was— well, not an illogical conclusion to make, given the scenes Jeonghan had been witness to in the last couple of weeks. Mingyu’s unexplained decision to bring a bag of clothes to choreography practice and put them on display while fishing for compliments, the sudden wardrobe clean out, the parade of outfits that were consciously casual but perhaps still too obviously planned... It was no wonder Jeonghan suspected he might be dealing with self-esteem issues.

‘Is there anything I can do to help? Do you want to talk about it?’

‘I’m okay, hyung.’ Mingyu made an effort to stand up straighter and project as much confidence as he could manage. ‘The clothes... I have been thinking about my clothes a lot, but not because I’m worried about how I look in them.’

‘Then why?’

Mingyu hadn’t intended to tell Jeonghan everything, but faced with his obvious concern, it suddenly became impossible not to. Truthfully, he was a little tired of scheming, too; he simply wasn’t cut out for it.

‘I’ve been wondering why you don’t borrow my clothes anymore,’ he admitted. ‘You used to all the time, and you still borrow from some of the other members, so I guess I was just... wondering.’

Jeonghan seemed startled. ‘I didn’t realise it was so important to you.’

‘I think—’ Mingyu hesitated, then threw caution to the wind and pushed on with the unvoiced thought that had been bothering him from the beginning. ‘It made me worry about how you felt about me. That maybe you weren’t comfortable enough with me anymore to just breeze in and take my things whenever you wanted.’

‘I wasn’t ever that rude,’ Jeonghan complained, but he stepped forward and folded Mingyu into a tight hug, so he couldn’t have been too offended. Mingyu slumped contentedly in his arms, letting himself enjoy it. It was so different to the hug Seungcheol and Joshua had given him. There was the same sense of affection and security, but Jeonghan had a way of making people feel like they were the only thing in the world that mattered, like he would gladly go to the ends of the earth for them.

He made Mingyu feel like that, at least.

‘The only reason I stopped borrowing from you was that it got harder to find clothes that fit me well.’ Jeonghan’s voice took on a teasing lilt. ‘You’re a bit bigger than me, if you hadn’t noticed.’

Mingyu reluctantly pulled back in order to gaze earnestly at him. ‘Most of my shirts would only look oversized on you.’

‘Very oversized,’ Jeonghan corrected him.

‘Not all of them!’

Jeonghan laughed. ‘So many things are making sense to me now. Alright, I’ll try some of them, okay? But not tonight, because I want to go to bed.’

Mingyu tried not to be too obvious about his delight, although he had a feeling Jeonghan could see right through him.

‘Hyung,’ he said instead in an attempt to play it cool, ‘do you only ever go to your room to sleep? You seem to spend so much time on the other floors.’

‘I’m just giving everyone what they want, which is more of me.’

Mingyu groaned, only half-jokingly. ‘The ego on this guy. It’s unbelievable.’

‘Good night, Mingyu,’ Jeonghan said happily. ‘Sleep well. You don’t need to keep trying to impress me with your clothes, so don’t get so dressed up anymore if you don’t feel like it.’

Mingyu blushed, but carried the memory of Jeonghan’s fond laughter with him into sleep.

;-;

‘You seem to be in a very good mood today,’ Minghao commented as he and Mingyu walked into the warehouse where filming was scheduled for Going Seventeen. The production team had planned a cooperative game, a hybrid of a treasure hunt and rescue mission, so everyone was being split up right from the beginning. The final member of Mingyu and Minghao’s group was supposed to be waiting for them at their starting point.

‘I am? Maybe it’s because I managed to get a few things straightened out,’ Mingyu said vaguely.

Minghao eyed him with interest. ‘Did they have anything to do with Jeonghan-hyung?’

In answer, Mingyu nodded towards a small group of people ahead of them. Jeonghan was there, talking to a camera director as another crew member fitted him with a microphone.

‘Oh, is Jeonghan-hyung in our team as well?’ Minghao waved at Jeonghan, then stopped and stared as something caught his attention. ‘Isn’t that your jacket? The black one we were arguing about when we were going through your wardrobe?’

‘It is,’ Mingyu said with a smug grin. ‘Doesn’t it look good on him?’

‘Sure, but I don’t know if it’s necessary to be that happy about it,’ Minghao said dryly.

Mingyu elbowed him and made a beeline for Jeonghan as they joined the group. He batted Jeonghan’s hands away from where they were fiddling with the jacket collar and neatened it himself.

‘Well? Are you happy now?’ Jeonghan asked.

‘Very,’ Mingyu said firmly, and savoured the sight of Jeonghan’s pleased little smile.

**Author's Note:**

> Challenge: Finish a Gyuhan fic! It’s been months! Why not try a fun trope, like clothes-sharing?
> 
> Result: Lots of nonsense and about five lines of Jeonghan and Mingyu actually sharing clothes. I’m sorry. /o\


End file.
